I love IKEA & other cheap sensory stuff

Im always looking for inexpensive sensory and vestibular regulators for my kids. We bought a canvas swing from IKEA years ago (only 10$ and still the same price) and my kids use it everyday. My daughter NEEDS it when she comes home from school everyday. They can go inside it and swing back and forth, they can spin and they can wrap their arms and legs around the outside of it and swing that way. I dont know what wed do without it. We also have a little teeter totter thing that they use a lot that we bought there. We decided to go buy a new swing this weekend to take with us to France because we couldnt find it in the French IKEA web site and didnt want to take the chance that they didnt have it. Our old one is kind of falling apart from years of "love". While we were there I bought a big ladybug pillow and an inflatable pillow that you put inside it and can blow up with a hair dryer. My daughter loves to sit and lay on it....also great for her balance. When we get to France I also intend to buy the little chair with a curtain that pulls down over it and can spin around....also one of their tents for my son who likes to hide.
Also a great thing to have (Not sold at IKEA you have to look online for it) is a Bilibo. It is also made in Sweden (Swedish people are so smart!). It looks kind of like a bowl, you can sit in it and spin or just rock back and forth (my daughter loves to spin) you can turn it over and stand on it. Also we have a little trampoline that we are taking with us to France....cant live without that either! We just bought my 7 year old son an exercise ball to sit on at Target for 20$. It has some sand in the bottom so it wont roll out from under him....he LOVES it and it helps him to sit longer and we get far more school work done. Also instead of those expensive fiber optic lights we use LED Christmas lights.....and lots and lots of shaving cream, flarp,play doh and silly putty instead of expensive therapy putty.
The only thing I splurged on was my kids weighted blankets and weighted animals but I think I will try my hand at making a blanket after I get settled.

The Ikea canvas swing was a big favorite here for years. I've been meaning to go back for one of their balancing thingies, because my son has been enjoying playing with the WII at our gym. A hoppy ball (sold anywhere) is also much enjoyed.

_________________My son doesn't like being called an Aspie -- he'd rather be called an Awesome.

My room is a sensory heaven! My parents don't really mind, as long as I keep my stuff in here, and not in their living room.
Other than my bookshelf, pretty much everything is fuzzy or squishy. I've got these fuzzy pillows, maybe ten inches wide with an eight inch diameter, and the softest stuffed animal I've ever felt. It's this really ugly IKEA cat, but it's so fuzzy and soft!

My 17 year old daughter likes fuzzy things like Minky and Chenille, she wanted a throw that she found in IKEA but her boyfriend said it looked too girly LOL....boys! Ill try to make her a blankey for Christmas this year....Im not really crafty but I did make some blankets and curtains (out of sheets) for my older kids when they were little.

My son loves soft stuff and bedding soooo much. He has 5 pairs of sheets, 2 flannel and 3 jersey. Numerous comforters and pillows. A special blankey. When he was little, I would sometimes go to his crib and not even be able to see him amongst all the stuffed animals. (Not when he was an infant, of course.) Traveling with that entire menagerie was really something.

_________________My son doesn't like being called an Aspie -- he'd rather be called an Awesome.

I think we need a trip to Ikea, because my son is very obviously missing the sensory stuff they have at school. And my husband is driving me nuts, because when our son starts to fidgit while being read to or watching a movie, he gets mad at him instead of offering him a fidgit toy or his hoppy ball or something useful. For crying out loud, he's been diagnosed for almost 6 years now, get with the program!

_________________My son doesn't like being called an Aspie -- he'd rather be called an Awesome.